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The Story of Holy Week Kids Craft

March 30, 2015March 30, 2015 chantelledoll

Today I am bringing you another kids craft courtesy of my mom, Christine Wolzl. It looks like a great little craft to help your kids understand the Easter story and most of the supplies you likely already have around your house. If you aren’t a religious person, I still love the little cave idea to use for a bunny home this time of year or even as a bear den to help your kids learn about hibernation!

Sunday is Palm Sunday, and the beginning of Holy Week. A lot happens in the final week of the life of Christ, so I created a set of props to help your young child learn about and retell the story. Too often the real story of Easter gets lost in the excitement of bunnies, eggs and chocolate. Making this project with your child will help your child experience the real reason why we have Easter. The original idea for the paper plate resurrection tomb came from a couple of ideas found on Pintrest. I took that idea and expanded it to include Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday as well as Easter Sunday. It is an easy and fun craft to do with your child, and the props will help them share the story with others.
Here is how to make it:

Collect the items you will need:

a Styrofoam or paper plate (dinner sized)
a paper lunch bag
cardstock; white for the patterns, green for the palms, and assorted colours for little flowers
3 popsicle sticks
permanent Sharpie markers
Crayola or other regular markers
glue gun
scissors
craft glue

Cut the Styrofoam plate in half.

Glue the two halves of the plate together with a glue gun. Cut a tomb entrance in the front half plate.

Make a popsicle cross by cutting one of the sticks in half and gluing it to the full stick with your glue gun. I trimmed the rounded edges off as well, using a pair of pruning snips.

In the back half plate of the tomb, punch a small hole and insert the popsicle stick cross. I used a bit of glue gun glue to hold the cross in place.

Decorate the front of the tomb with grass, flowers, and stone work. Use permanent Sharpie markers as regular markers will rub off. The flowers can be drawn on with the Sharpie markers, or can be made from coloured card stock with a punch, or cut out freehand. The flowers and grass represent the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus goes to pray after his Last Supper, and where he is betrayed to the soldiers by Judas.

Download the pictures of Jesus and the bread and wine, and print them on white card stock. I have sized both images for this project in this Holy Week Craft Images pdf download.

The original Jesus image can be found here: http://familyfeastandferia.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/JonahProjectJonah.pdf and the bread and wine can be found here: https://missionbibleclass.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/d07_meaning-of-lords-supper.png

Colour and cut out the Jesus figure. Cut a V notch out of the top of the figure in the white area. (The notch has to be big enough for Jesus to fit over the top of the cross.)

Colour and cut out the bread and wine picture. Glue onto a 2 inch by 3 inch piece of purple card stock which has been folded in half like a tent. This represents the table at the Last Supper.

From a piece of green card stock make 2 palm leaves and glue them to the top of the popsicle stick. This represents Palm Sunday.

Open a paper bag and then scrunch it up into a ball. This will be the stone in front of the tomb.

Line the props up in this order: Jesus, palm branch, bread and wine, tomb and stone.

As you read or tell the story of Holy Week, have your child do the actions with Jesus. You can tell the story in your own words, read a children’s story of Holy Week, or read the sequence from out of the Bible.

For Pam Sunday, wave the palms in front of Jesus.

For Holy Thursday, have your child move Jesus behind the table with the bread and wine.

Then move Jesus in front of the flowers. This is the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus is praying.

For Good Friday, have your child hang Jesus on the cross (the notch made in the top of the Jesus figure slips over the top of the cross.)

Then take Jesus down from the cross, put him in the tomb, and roll the stone in front of the tomb.

For Easter Sunday, roll the stone away and bring the risen Jesus out of the tomb.

I hope you enjoy making this Holy Week craft with your child. Have a faith filled Easter!

Everyday Life, Two Legged Fun, Uncategorized

DRESSing for Disney

March 6, 2015April 27, 2017 chantelledoll

To princess dress or not to princess dress? That was the question I faced before heading to Disneyland. We have no shortage of princess dresses to select from, but they are all very delicate and not made of the most comfortable material for a full day of wear. They are also all pretty long and I worried about my daughter tripping or getting caught up on it when getting on rides.

BUT I was also afraid after seeing all the other little girls in the park wearing their Princess dresses that she would be upset. In the past month, she definitely hit the terrible two stage full-on and has become very headstrong if there is something she sees and wants. Before the trip, I downloaded the Disneyland app to my phone and she repeatedly went to the Fantasy Faire section to pull-up the pictures of the princesses to point to the dresses and proclaim “I want dat!”. I know they do sell much better quality dress-up costumes in the parks, but there are still a lot of itchy materials and the length issue to consider.

I ended up getting this lovely Cinderella Deluxe Dress from our local Disney Store and hoped it would be a good enough compromise for my dress obsessed little girl. The bodice is a nice cotton so she was comfortable throughout the day and the skirt portion was short enough that she was not tripping as she ran through the parks and stepped onto the rides. The extra layers at the skirt did make it a bit heavy, but I don’t think my little ‘Rella even noticed.

She was with me when I bought it, but I tucked it away and surprised her with it for our second day in the Disneyland Park when I knew we would be visiting Fantasy Faire. She was so excited and proud to get the dress and she ran/pranced/skipped the entire way from the hotel room to the park that morning.

The dress worked perfectly and the adorable photos of my princess were well worth the cost of the dress. Her faced absolutely beamed every time she was called a princess that day or was told how pretty her dress was! It is better made then most of the dresses in our dress-up our collection so it should stand up to the daily use I know it will get now that we are back from the trip.

For the other days in Disneyland, she was happy to wear her Minnie dress, and her favorite Frozen outfit. The more frills and tulle for my girl, the better! I did have a frilly new Minnie outfit for our last day in the parks, but she insisted on wearing the Cinderella dress for a second day. I think she would have worn it the entire trip given the choice.

How do you deal with princess dresses in the Parks? I figure my little girl will only be little for a short time so I want to embrace this phase as much as I can. Seeing her excitement in the park just made me excited for the next time we go when she will be able to get the full princess experience with a Bibbidy Boppidy Boutique makeover!

Disney Under 3 also shares a great idea to use Princess Dress-Up Aprons on your visit to the parks. I came across this too late to have time to order any this trip, but I will definitely keep this in mind for our next Disney adventure.

Uncategorized

We’re Going to Disneyland!!!

November 4, 2014 chantelledoll

Looky what just arrived in my mail last week…

I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am to tell you we are going to Disneyland this February! The plane tickets are bought and the planning has begun.

I love Disney! My husband and I’s first Disney trip together was to Walt Disney World for our wedding. Neither of us had ever been to WDW, but we figured not much could go wrong getting married in the Happiest Place on Earth. We were right – we had a truly magical wedding and came back of lots of amazing memories from that trip.

There is just something about stepping into those parks that makes you instantly happy. Within the first day at Disney World, we were even discussing plans to come back for a 10 year vow renewal in 2017. It seemed like a bit of crazy talk at the time, but the time has flown and it no longer seems all that distant. For now, I am so happy we are able to manage to fit in a trip to Disneyland in early 2015 to give me my Disney fix.

This will be our first big trip as a family of four and everyone’s first time in Disneyland. The crazy part is that I went to Tokyo Disney on a class trip in 2000, got married in Disney World in 2007 and visited Disneyland Paris in 2009, but it has taken me this long to get to the Disney Park in closest proximity to me! I am both excited and terrified to navigate the parks with young kids in tow. It will be a much different trip, but I am guessing it will be totally worth it to experience the Disney magic through them.

Our original plan was to be in the parks for our sons 5th birthday on February 23, but plane ticket prices and holidays have dictated our trip be a couple weeks sooner. I will still try to plan some special birthday surprises while we are there because I think it is close enough to his birthday to count.

I am also starting to work on a plan to tell the kids the exciting news and can’t wait to share it with you. Hopefully I can keep it a secret from the kids until February!

Everyday Life, Throwback Thursday, Two Legged Fun, Uncategorized

Throwback Thursday: My Little Pumpkin’s

October 23, 2014 chantelledoll

Happy Thursday! With Halloween fast approaching I thought it would be fun to share some throwback photo’s from Camden and Keira’s first Halloween’s.

I am a sucker for holiday themed clothing and got Camden this cute “Mommy’s little pumpkin” onesie.

His costume was an adorable little monkey I found at Old Navy.

To co-ordinate with Camden, I also found banana costumes for each of the dogs.

Keira was a little younger and smaller for her first Halloween so I decided to attempt the baby-in-the-pumpkin photo. This is better suited to warmer climates, but we managed okay and I was able to get a few cute shots before a complete meltdown outside.

Her first Halloween costume was an elephant. She didn’t co-ordinate with her Spiderman brother and the dogs in their Hulk and Captain America costumes, but she still looked darn cute.

This Halloween we will celebrate a couple more first’s. It will be our first Halloween in our new house and Keira’s is now big enough to go Trick-or-Treating for the first time! It is hard to believe that she had just barely begun walking at this point last year. She did do some Trick-or-Treating at the mall, but this will be the first time I will actually take her out around the neighbourhood.

What are you looking forward to this Halloween?

Crafts, Everyday Life, Little Hands, Two Legged Fun, Uncategorized

Home Depot Kids Workshop

October 7, 2014 chantelledoll

Okay, technically it is no longer summer, but we did manage to finish one more item from our summer bucket list over the weekend: attending a Home Depot Kids Workshop.

Since getting possession of our new house, we have spent more then our fair share of time (and money) at Home Depot and Lowes. We always have the kids in tow and while they are generally pretty agreeable, they have made it known that visiting the hardware store is not the most exciting activity for them. And who can blame them, really? Riding in the racecar cart is only exciting for so long!

On one of our many trips to Home Depot this winter, we just happened to be in the lumber section towards the back of the store and my son noticed that there was a crowd of kids painting and building. He desperately wanted in on the action, but I was pretty sure it that you needed to have registered for it and I quickly steered him away. Expressing his disappointment, I promised it was something I would look into and that he could attend the next time. It took me a few months, but I finally make true to my promise.

The Home Depot Kids Workshops take place on this first Saturday of every month. The project details are always available on their website ahead of time and I was able to register for the class online via their simple form. I admit that when I have looked before the projects haven’t always appealed to me, but I was excited to see this month’s was something my 4 year old could build and actually play with.

We arrived at the store right at 10am. Once there, Camden was welcomed warmly by the Home Depot staff and given his official orange Home Depot apron with his name on it!

Our project for the day was building an Emergency Service vehicle. At each spot at the table was a complete packaged kit with instructions, stickers, wood, wheels and the nails needed to put the project together. The instructions were clear to follow and the wood all had pre-drilled holes that made it easy to get the nails started and in the right locations. It all came together fairly quickly and my son was quite proud that he was able to wield the hammer and actually help put the vehicle together.

Once assembled, they had a table full of paint for the kids to customize their creations. Camden stuck to his favorite color, green!

Instead of waiting in store for the paint to dry, we decided to bring everything home and finish putting the stickers on there. We were given a friendly good-bye from the staff and a cute little certificate of completion that Camden proudly held the entire drive home.

The kids were also each given a project pin that I assume are meant to be collected and added to their apron as they attend more of these clinics.

It was a fun activity for my son and made for a great little “date” for he and I to do without his little sister tagging along. And the best part is that it was all completely FREE!

We had it on our Summer Bucket List, but this is something you can definitely do in those upcoming winter months when you are all going stir crazy and need a reason to get out of the house. Yes, it means yet another trip to the hardware store for the kids, but trust me they won’t be complaining this time around!

Similarily, Lowes offers FREE Build and Grow Clinics for children aged 5 and up. There is a great looking haunted house coming up on October 18th and I have seen other movie themed projects such as Turbo or How to Train Your Dragon in the past. This is something I will definitely be checking later in the year after my son turns 5.

Have you attended one of these workshops in the past? Please describe your favorite project in the comments below!

Two Legged Fun, Uncategorized

Goin’ to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo….

August 19, 2014October 5, 2014 chantelledoll

One of our Summer Bucket list items was to visit the zoo. We have managed to complete this Bucket List item twice over, at two different and amazing zoos: The Calgary Zoo and the Edmonton Valley Zoo.

The Calgary Zoo

Back in June we made a weekend trip to Calgary to visit my sister. The main purpose of the trip was to pick out the paving stones we wanted to order for our patio, but we decided to make an entire weekend of it. I looked at other things to do with the kids in Calgary, but ended up coming back to the Calgary Zoo again because it was something we had done before and enjoyed.

I knew the kids were going to like it, but I was still surprised by just how excited my 2 year old animal lover got over seeing all the creatures.

I had brought our folding wagon along because I know it is a lot of walking, but my two year old was insistent on walking almost the entire zoo on her own so she could see all the animals up close. Nothing beats seeing the excitement come over a young child when they spot an animal in one of the habitats!

And, of course, like most of our outings this summer, there had to be ice cream.

After our ice cream break, we headed to the back of the zoo where I was excited to see they have added on some kid friendly attractions such as a carousel, train ride and a great playground. It was a nice break from the walking and the kids were excited to try out the rides and animal themed park.

Camden also discovered some large rocks that he happily climbed.

And in true little sister fashion, Keira had to get in on the climbing action too!

The dinosaur park has been there for as long as I can remember. I remember enjoying it as a kid, but since it is such a big zoo we have ended up skipping over it the last few visits. This time Camden seemed pretty interested in seeing the dino’s so we decided to take a walk through the Prehistoric area where we discovered all kinds of different dinosaurs along the path.

And, we finally got to see the penguins on our way back out. I think Keira could have spent the entire day just watching the penguins swimming and waddling and hopping around their Penguin Plunge habitat. I don’t blame her, this is one of my favorite parts of the Calgary Zoo now too.

Edmonton Valley Zoo

I can’t say enough about how impressed I am with the improvements to the Edmonton Valley Zoo. Before it didn’t even compare to the Calgary Zoo, but the new entrance and expanded facilities has it looking more and more like a “real zoo”.

I don’t know how, but some how we managed to miss seeing the biggest animal at the zoo – Lucy the Elephant. She must have been out when we passed by her cage and then we didn’t see her out on her walk as we made our way through the rest of the zoo. I was a little disappointed since we didn’t get to see any elephants at the Calgary Zoo either, but there were still plenty of other amazing animals to look at.

SONY DSC

One thing that hasn’t changed in decades at the Edmonton zoo is the petting zoo area, now known as their Urban Farm. Camden sat it out so he wouldn’t have to wash his hands after petting the animals, but Keira was right in there with the goats, sheep, ponies and chickens. This kid really has no fear when it comes to animals and I love seeing the excitement on her face and the jump in her step with each new creature she gets to come face to face with.

Another highlight is the train that runs past the Urban Farm and through a tunnel. It is a short ride, but the kids love it and there always seems to be a pretty good line-up to get on the train. I also love that this attraction is now included with admission, whereas we had to buy tickets to ride the similar train at the Calgary Zoo.

And I must say the Edmonton Zoo has Calgary Zoo beat hands down for ice cream selection. They have a concession stand dedicated solely to frozen treats where you can find any kind of popsicle or hard ice cream flavor you could ever want. Camden was pretty darn excited to pick out a Sonic popsicle complete with gumball eyes!

In the newer area of the Valley Zoo is a whole section of rocks and tunnels meant to be climbed through and explored. It made it a little hard to keep track of my two kids, but they had a great time. I particularly liked the giant beaver house the kids could walk right into.

Although they were two different trips, there were many common elements that made for a fun day. For my kids you seem to be guaranteed a good time if there are interesting animals, a train ride, big things to climb on and ice cream!

And the marker of a good time for me? Two happy, sleeping kids in the backseat after both visits!

Friday Favorites, Uncategorized

Friday Favorites: Solo For Kids On-The-Go Cups

August 8, 2014 chantelledoll

In the warm summer months I like to occasionally treat myself to a slushy type drink – whether that be a Frappuccino, Time Horton’s Iced Capp, Frozen Lemonade or the good old standby, a Slurpee. Both my kids are old enough now that they know the delights of the drive-thru and gone are the days of me sneaking through to grab a frozen treat all of my own. I have learned that I need to now buy everyone each their own or risk having mine completely disappear.

Last summer Tim Horton’s still offered an XS sized cup that was the perfect size to get my then 3 year old a smoothie or Frozen Lemonade all his own. This has been discontinued and their smallest size is now way too big for just one of my kids, but not quite enough to split two ways. One day, since we were headed right home, I had the brilliant thought to just order a medium Frozen Lemonade and split it into their sippy cups when we got home. A medium is far cheaper then two smalls and there is way less drink wasted this way.

Shortly after, I recalled the packs of lidded Solo brand For Kids On-The-Go cups I had seen in the grocery store and decided to pick up a pack to keep handy in the car for just this reason.

McDonalds offers a snack size in their smoothie that is perfect for my kids, but everywhere else I have switched to ordering one medium and using these Solo cups. A Starbucks Grande smoothie divided perfectly for my two kids.

When we are on the road and end up with other tricky items such as square cartons of chocolate milk, I also pull out these cups. They fit nicely in the carseat cupholders and I love that the bendy straws mean less chance of them jabbing into the roof of the kids mouths if they are drinking and we hit a bump.

Shhhh…just don’t tell the kids they are actually sharing!

*The opinions expressed in this post are all my own. I have not received compensation for this review.

Celebrations, Throwback Thursday, Uncategorized

Around the Year in 100 Posts!

August 7, 2014 chantelledoll

Today marks one year since I decided to start sharing my ideas with the world through Dolled Up Design and what better way to share then in my 100th post!

I started this blog as an outlet for my creative ideas. I love reading other blogs and seeing their great parties, interior decorating and creative food ideas. I waste way too much time on Pinterest and decided I needed to start sharing back some of my own ideas rather then just creating board upon board of other people’s ideas.

This is a creative outlet for me. I enjoyed my previous job as a graphic designer, but when I made the switch to being at home with the kids I felt my skills starting to fall to the wayside. I began this blog as a way to try and establish myself as more then just “Camden and Keira’s mom” and am hoping in the process I might inspire other people to bring out their creative side.

I am surprised to see my post count as high as it is because it honestly doesn’t feel like I am able to spend as much time on my blog as I would like. Between keeping up with the kids and moving this past year, this is definitely an accomplishment for me. I am also proud and excited to have been chosen to join Moms & Munchkins as a Party Tip contributor so hopefully that gives me the push to come up with even more great ideas in the year ahead. I have tons of projects floating around in my head, but it is always a matter of finding the time to execute and document these great ideas!

Like a lot of my projects, my blog is a work in progress. The overall look of the blog still leaves something to be desired and the linking up to all the different avenues of social media makes my head spin! There is definite room for improvement and I hope as I move forward and my blog continues to grow that it only continues to become better.

So, in celebration of One year and 100 posts, here are my top 10 favorite Dolled Up projects from the past year. Click on the links to view the full posts!

And, because it is Thursday, it only seems fitting that I throwback and link to my very first blog post – my Love is Sweet personal candy buffet.

I would like to finish this post with a big thank you to all my readers old and new!

You are the main motivation for this blog and I can’t wait to share more projects and ideas with you in the year ahead.

Celebrations, Parties, Uncategorized

Let Them Have Cake! A Wedding Cake Surprise for my Brother

July 30, 2014 chantelledoll

Back in June my little brother tied the knot. He is the last of all our siblings to make the step, but has managed to beat us all to the alter in terms of age. I was a little surprised when I first found out his plans to get married so quickly, but he couldn’t have picked a lovelier wife and just seeing the two of them together I know they are the perfect match.

When I first found out he was engaged, my brother had mentioned maybe having me help with doing some cupcakes for the dessert. Since I had done a massive cake for my older sister’s wedding, it seemed fitting that he would ask and was something I was more then willing to tackle. Then he spent some time in the daily chaos that is my life and I think he got scared of burdening me with one more task. He and his wife looked at buying a cake from a local bakery but I think it ended up being one of those additional wedding details that they just didn’t feel was worth the cost when they already were paying for other desserts with their catered meal.

Whatever the reasons, I decided that I still wanted him to have a cake. I have enjoyed gifting my time and talents making cakes and creating candy buffets for our other siblings wedding’s, so it just felt wrong not to do something equally special for him. I know that he enjoys my baking and was confident enough in my baking skills that I could surprise him with something he and his guests could both enjoy.

The planning process for the cake ended up being a lot more challenging then I would have expected. The bride had a pinterest board of cake ideas, but browsing through the many different cakes just confused me more. I know the couple themselves struggled when they were still planning a cake and looking for the perfect cake topper so I was stressed to find something they would really like. I also was up against the clock a little because up until a few weeks before the wedding I thought they were still ordering themselves a small cutting cake.

One thing I did know is that I wanted to incorporate my dad’s favorite cake. Our dad passed during my second year of university and sadly has not been there to see any of his four children get married. For my older sisters S’mores themed wedding cake, I incorporated the cake base of my dad’s favorite chocolate cake. One cake just didn’t seem impressive enough so, for my brother, I decided to make two cakes – one being Dad’s Chocolate Cake and the second a Wildberry and Almond swirl to match the purple in the wedding colors.

For the toppers, I ended up cutting out the wedding graphic from the invitation and attached it to skewers to stick into the cake. The bride had designed it herself so I knew it was an image she liked and decided it would look cute atop the cake. To compliment the owl image, I recreated the flower graphics also used on the invite and printed off several of them to glue to toothpicks and stick throughout the two cakes. On the second cake, I saw a cute banner as one of the ideas on her pinterest board, so I decided to go with that and use the phrase “Better Together”. I knew they didn’t like lovey-dovey sayings, so this seemed perfect. I think paper cut-outs looked cute on the cakes and it was a very inexpensive option for the toppers.

I kept the icing finishes simple, with a more rustic buttercream technique on the wildberry cake and a simple swirl pattern on the chocolate cake.

To go with my gift of cake, I came across Green Apple Danglers on Etsy that makes these adorable personalized forks. I had a pair done with “Mr” and “Mrs” and added their wedding date at the end of each fork.

To cut the cakes, I knew the wedding couple didn’t really want the traditional “pretty” wedding knife and server set that they would not know what to do with after the wedding. My older sister was struggling to come up with a good gift idea and I know my brother has always wanted a really good kitchen knife, so I made the suggestion and that became the cake cutting knife. I think that knife it has to be one of the sharpest knives ever used to cut a wedding cake!

Both cakes turned out delicious and I was glad I was able to pull it off as a surprise for the happy couple. The bride happened to tag along to Costco on the day I went to buy the supplies and I was so happy she didn’t question my need for 4 pounds of butter and 4 bags of icing sugar!

One other great detail on their wedding day was these adorable candy packet’s my mom made for the favors. She used her Cricut to cut each of the pieces and then stamped and assembled each by hand. Tucked inside the final sleeves were a couple York Peppermint Patties (yum!). I think this clearly shows where I get my craftiness from and I look forward to sharing more of her card creations in future blog posts.

Congratulations again Dylan and Jodi! Wishing you a lifetime of love, happiness and all things sweet.

And, if you want to learn more about my lovely new sister-in-law Jodi, hop on over to her beauty and lifestyle blog Up the Rollercoaster.

Everyday Life, Two Legged Fun, Uncategorized

Doll’s Aboard the Teddy Bear Special!

July 6, 2014July 6, 2014 chantelledoll

On July 4th we had the pleasure of travelling with Alberta Prairie Railroad Excursions aboard their Teddy Bear Special. We have no trips or holidays booked this summer so I booked a few months ago thinking it would be a nice treat for the kids (and us adults!). I was a little hesitant to book because of the price, but as you will see, the $200 was totally worth it for what we got out of the day.

Because we were riding the Teddy Bear Special, the kids were asked to each bring a teddy. As an activity earlier in the week, I decided to take the kids to West Edmonton Mall to pick out an outfit for their Teddies at Build-A-Bear Workshop. My son was disappointed they didn’t have the How to Train A Dragon hoodie he had seen on the website, but there was so much selection in the store that it wasn’t hard to find something he liked for his teddy. He quickly settled on a soccer uniform for his bear, while my two year old zoned in on the stuffed dogs. Luckily I was able to convince her she didn’t need yet another stuffed dog, and we went with a rainbow striped top and jeans for her bear.

We boarded the train in Stettler, after a quiet hour and a half long drive in the car from Edmonton. Thank you iPads and sleepy children! Inside they had our names labelled above our seats and the kids quickly settled in with their teddies, excited to get their tickets punched and begin the journey ahead.

I was surprised how happy my two year old was just staring out the window and watching the scenery. I thought she would be fidgety and bored on the actual train ride, but she was fascinated by the farms, vehicles and cows passing by.

It also helped that, once moving, we were able to get up and explore the entire train. It was longer then I was expecting with passenger cars, an open air car for viewing and two concession stands. As a treat, the kids each picked a Ring Pop and we shared some popcorn to tide us over until lunch time.

Our train’s destination was Big Valley. There they had a roast beef lunch waiting for us at the community hall, which we quickly ate and then set out to explore the village.

Up the hill was a beautiful historic Anglican Church built in 1916 that we were able to go in and view.

Back down main street were some neat little shops filled with handicrafts, fudge, fresh baking and ice cream.

And because our outings don’t seem to be complete without ice cream, Camden suckered daddy into a cone of Bubble Gum Ice Cream for himself while Keira repeatedly swiped dad’s mint chocolate chip waffle cone.

After a quick clean-up from the ice cream, we still had time to go for another small walk and explore some of the old farm machinery.

We were also able to go right inside the Big Valley grain elevator which I found kind of neat. I don’t think my farm raised husband was near as fascinated.

There were a couple other historic buildings and small museums nearby we didn’t get a chance to explore because it was then time to head back to the train station for the Teddy Bear parade. The clowns lead us for a small walk down main street so we could show off our bears, and then it was back onto the train for the return journey to Stettler. As an added touch, each kid received a small Beanie Baby as their prize for participating in the parade.

Back on the train, I also got a flashback to my childhood when this guy entered our train car to entertain the kids. I remember Rosco the Clown being at a few of my friends birthday parties way back when I was in elementary so I was surprised to see it was indeed him. I think he was still doing the same tricks and his jokes were just as corny as ever, but he sure knows what he is doing because he had my two kids laughing their little butts off.

It was a beautiful day for a train ride and I was surprised how much both my kids enjoyed it. The staff from Alberta Prairie Railway were amazing and everything was well thought out and planned to keep the kids entertained and happy. They run several different rides throughout the summer, with some of the more adult focused journeys even involving train robberies. The village of Big Valley had a lot more then I was expecting and there is definitely something to be found for all ages. If you ever plan to be in the Stettler area or are looking for a fun daytrip within Alberta, definitely check Alberta Prairie Railway Excursions out!